"My child, it is no more true of marriage than of any other state of life. If thou wouldst be happy or useful in any position whatever, thou must learn self-denial. I tell thee, Agnes, it is the key of life, and of happiness, too. No one who has nothing to do but to please himself, ever succeeded in doing so for any length of time. Self-denial is the law of God, and whoever fights against it is sure to come by the worst. And He has not disdained to set us an example.
"'Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.'
"'Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification,' says Paul, and adds, 'for even Christ pleased not himself.'
"If thou wilt only try and do so for the love of God, my dear, in time it will become easy to thee, and thou wilt find many sweet flowers of pleasure growing where thou didst not look for them."
Agnes did not reply. She did not relish this kind of doctrine at all. She had professed to ask for advice, but what she really wanted was pity. Her appetite in this respect was fast becoming morbid. She sighed, and was silent; and Aunt Eunice, thinking she had said enough, turned the conversation to something else.
Joseph came home a little before noon, and looked very much annoyed as he entered the disorderly kitchen. "All in the suds, as usual!" he said, bitterly. "I wish there were no such things as washing-days!"
Agnes sighed again as she went to meet him, and cast a glance at Aunt Eunice, as much as to say, "You see how I am treated."
Joe smoothed his ruffled brow as he saw who was their visitor, and welcomed her with great cordiality, hinting plainly to Agnes at the same time that she had better go and make herself decent. When she had gone, he began to apologize for the state of the house. It soon appeared that he too had a train of grievances to relate. Agnes was extravagant and self-willed; she spent money foolishly on expensive provisions, and then wasted what she bought, because she did not know how to cook it; he was afraid they should never make both ends meet, at the rate they were going on, &c.
Aunt Eunice dealt still more plainly with him than with his wife. She told him that it was the man's place to comfort, to support and help,—that he must not expect to receive all and give nothing in return. It was true that Agnes was ignorant; but a good deal of her trouble arose from inexperience, of which she would get the better every day; and she warned him against forfeiting his wife's and his own respect by fretfulness and fault-finding and by indulging in little acts of selfishness.
On the whole, Joseph was not displeased. He had really been very much in love with his wife,—more so, it is to be supposed, than she with him, since her heavy bread had failed to have the same disenchanting effect upon him which his cookery-book had exercised upon her. He said to himself that it was very natural and proper for the old lady to stand up for her niece, and he liked her the better for it. He was in a very good humour when Agnes appeared, and with a great deal of politeness gave Aunt Eunice his arm as she crossed the street.
As they passed out through the kitchen, the old lady's smooth brow was contracted for a moment with something like a frown. She had caught sight of one of her fine home-spun linen sheets lying on the floor among the other clothes, torn and stained, and with the marks of flat-irons burned into and out of it. She said nothing; but, before she reached Letty's door, her mind was made up as to a subject upon which she had been for some time in doubt. What that subject was we shall find out by-and-by.